1846.] CHOICE OF ANCHORAGE. 119 



may easily be seen and avoided. The best anchorage is 

 northerly of where the water flows into the bay ; it is 

 about five hundred yards within the southern horn, on 

 the east of the position where the English fort stood, the 

 site of which may be readily found by the bricks strewed 

 about the ground, and the cleared and solid ground 

 which is not to be found upon any other part of the 

 island. A merchant vessel may obtain a supply, but the 

 quantity required for the ' Samarang ' very soon drained 

 it ; I think about fifteen tons. This, therefore, cannot 

 deserve the appellation of a watering-place. As the water 

 regained its level during the night, it is probable that it 

 is derived from the rising ground behind the fort, and 

 would prove sufficient for the consumption of its former 

 garrison, which appears to have been about eighty persons. 

 The narrative, extracted from the Spanish, and which 

 appears in another part of this work, states that the party 

 which surprised this position landed at the back of the 

 island. This is improbable, almost impossible ; but, as the 

 Fort was situated on a peninsula, it is more likely that 

 they landed on the southern side, and attacked the post 

 from the hill in its rear, which, by the common rules of 

 defence, should have been cleared and fortified, and would 

 thus have prevented any chance of surprise. 



Although the present season was deemed dry to an 

 extraordinary degree, throughout the northern districts 

 of Borneo, still the northern, and, apparently, swampy 

 part of Balambangan, exterior to this bay, was found to 

 contain large pools of deeply-tinted fresh water, and, in 

 several instances, runs of sufficient strength to cut small 

 channels through the sand into the sea. All the soil of 



